This week we are highlighting one of our more interesting woods that is native to
North America, Desert Ironwood. Desert Ironwood or Olneya tesota is native to the Sonora Desert region of California, Arizona, and northern Mexico.  It grows below 2,500 feet of elevation in dry regions which rarely freeze and its region is nearly exactly the same as the boundaries of the Sonora Desert. It is a multi-stem tree with lavender to pink flowers that grows to 45 feet tall and often is over 800 years old...

with some trees living in excess of 1500 years old.  It is one of the tallest trees in the Sonoran region and is an important habitat for many animals. The wood of Desert Ironwood is rich in color that ranges from light brown to a very rich dark brown with occasional areas of a rich gold that seems to glow from within. It is the densest and one of the hardest woods in North America.  With a specific gravity of 1.2 or more it is extremely heavy – water has a specific gravity of 1.0 so Desert Ironwood does not float in water. The harvesting of Desert Ironwood is controlled; therefore, supply of the wood is limited.  Historically, many parts of the tree have been used for a variety of uses.  The roots, inner bark, and flowers have been used as medicine.  Over the years the wood has been used for fence posts, firewood, charcoal, carvings, and utensils.  It is a prized wood for artists because of it’s tight grain and beautiful color and for those reasons we at Higdon Writing Instruments chose it as one of our wood selections for our hand made pens.

Please follow along for future postings of information and rare and unusual woods.  If you have any questions please visit us here.